55 days of BtVS: Day 4

I won't be at home for a few days, and since my netbook kinda broke down today, I don't know if it'll work to post anything during that time. We'll see.Here goes:

Day 4: Least favorite female character

Since I have already done Veruca, I have to pick Amy this time.

Not for the obvious reason though. Of course it’s not very nice to take Willow to Rack and thus seal her fate to eventually get addicted; to later try to get her back on the magic when she fights with withdrawel anyway; or to play the Warren trick on her in s7. But that’s not why I picked her. It’s more for the lack of importance regarding how much screen time she ultimately got, the inconsistency the writers put her through and for the reason she returned at all.

Amy was a sweet girl in the beginning and, as the most meaningful aspect of her existence, introduced us to magic in the Buffy verse. In s2 and s3, I found it already a bit OOC that she had turned to magic after what she’d experienced being a victim of it. I still could chalk it up as a reaction to exactly this event, and although clearly dipping into darker magic, she was still kind of a nice girl who had decided to use magic to her advantage. Not a good trait, morally more on the grey side, but not really bad either, because she didn’t hurt anyone with it but herself (turning herself into a rat in ‘Gingerbread’).

When she was turned back into a human girl, it quickly became obvious that she’d been brought back for the sole reason to provide the magic buddy for Willow that was needed to help in getting her addicted. I found the turn Amy took in only a few days very unbelievable. How could she have been addicted to magic so fast? She wasn’t a girl for more than a week again! And how the hell could she have known of Rack anyway? She’d been a rat for years! We never got any plausible explanation, and thus are left with a character that feels like a plot device. It doesn't help that this is, to me anyway, the only questionable plotline in s6, and it's based on shaky ground with not much credibility.

Her return in s7 was even more of a MacGuffin. Not that her character development was that impossible or even unlikely. It was just not at all meaningful or even interesting, because again we were presented with next to no background on it apart from what little information we got shoved down our throats at the end of the episode. It was handled heavy handed and didn’t make for an even remotely compelling appearance. I feel like I know more about Cassie, who appeared in only one episode (not counting her cameo as The First)!

It’s not that I don’t like the character or the actress; she could’ve been an interesting addition, but as it was, she wasn’t by far fleshed out enough, so that in the end she annoyed the hell out of me. All things considered - after ‘Witch’ I could’ve done without her.